Rabbi Arthur Weiner

Six years ago this month, something remarkable happened in the Middle East. On September 15, 2020, representatives of Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain gathered at the White House to sign what became known as the Abraham Accords. A few months later, Morocco joined the process, as did Sudan. For the first time in a quarter century, Arab nations were establishing formal relations with the State of Israel. At the time, I wrote to our congregation about what an extraordinary development this was. I wrote about it again a year later. And now six years have passed. The anniversary deserves to be acknowledged and celebrated.   Not because everything has gone according to plan. Quite the contrary. Think of what these agreements have been required to survive. October 7 th , and the terrible war that followed. The enormous suffering and political turmoil throughout the region. The deterioration of Israel's relations with much of the international community. War involving Iran an...

One of the most familiar prayers of the High Holiday season is Avinu Malkeinu — “Our Father, our King.” The words are so familiar that we can easily say them without stopping to consider what they actually mean. Avinu — our Father. Malkeinu — our King. We speak of God in two very different ways. God is close to us, like a parent. But God is also sovereign, and   commanding, like a King. And if God is our Father and our King, then what does that make you? About 20 years ago, I read a story that challenged me to think about that question in ways I had never considered before. It was about a woman named Sarah Jane Culberson , who discovered the answer to that question in a way that few people ever will. Sarah had been adopted as a baby and raised in West Virginia. She knew very little about her biological parents. For years she wondered where she had come from and who they had been. Finally, when she was twenty-eight years old, she decided to search for her biological fathe...